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Monday, September 10, 2007

The two types of Balloon, hot-air and gas-filled, were invented in the same year, 1783.Brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier, Paper-makers near Lyons, France, noticed that when their kitchen fire was alight, bits floated up the Chimney in the currents of hot air. So they experimented with paper bags. In June, 1782, they made a bag out of cloth lined with paper. It was 35.5 metres(110ft.) in circumference. In a public square they set this up, lit a fire under-neath, and the balloon floated off for a mile and a half before landing.In Paris, a Physicist, J.A.C.Charles, heard of what had happened in Lyons, but did not know how it had been done, Hydrogen had only recently been discovered, so in August he sent up a smaller balloon which he filled with hydrogen (by pouring sulphuric acid over iron filings).Then in September the Montgolfier brothers arrived in Paris with a huge hot-air balloon and sent up some animals in it while the king and queen of France watched. It was on 21st November, 1783 that the first balloon to carry people (two of them) traveled safely for more than 8 kilometers (5miles) in 25 minutes.

J.A.C. Charles watched with interest, realizing that his was a different type altogether, and on 1st DecemberFlew his balloon, (very much like a modern gas balloon, even to the value in the top to allow gas to escapeSo that it can land), also with two people on board. His balloon flew for 27 miles before landing.

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People should provide the right information instead of keep feeding the internet with lies!The first balloon was invented by Brazilian-born Portuguese priest at 45 years of age, Bartolomeu de Gusmão, and the first public exhibition was to the Portuguese Court on August 8, 1709, in the hall of the Casa da Índia in Lisbon.You can check this informatin on Wikipedia and 'The Times' of October 20, 1786 makes clear:

"By accounts from Lisbon we are assured, that in consequence of the experiments made there with the Montgolfier balloon, the literati of Portugal had been incited to make numerous researches on the subject; in consequence of which they pretend that the honour of the invention is due to Portugal. They say that in 1720, a Brazilian Jesuit, named Bartholomew Gusmao, possessed of abilities, imagination, and address, by permission of John V. fabricated a balloon in a place contiguous to the Royal Palace, and one day, in presence of their Majesties, and an immense croud of spectators, raised himself, by means of a fire lighted in the machine, as high as the cornice of the building; but through the negligence and want of experience of those who held the cords, the machine took an oblique direction, and, touching the cornice, burst and fell.

The balloon was in the form of a bird with a tail and wings. The inventor proposed to make new experiments, but, chagrined at the raillery of the common people, who called him wizzard, and terrified by the Inquisition, he took the advice of his friends, burned his manuscripts, disguised himself, and fled to Spain, where he soon after died in an hospital.

They add, that several learned men, French and English, who had been at Lisbon to verify the fact, had made enquiries at the Carmelite monastery, where Gusmao had a brother, who had preserved some of his manuscripts on the manner of constructing aerostatic machines. Various living persons affirm that they were present at the Jesuit's experiments, and that he received the surname of Voador, or Flying-man."There is even the official documentation from 1917, you can find it on http://purl.pt/706/3/sa-19198-v_PDF/sa-19198-v_PDF_24-C-R0075/sa-19198-v_0000_capa1-capa4_t24-C-R0075.pdf